Friday, September 15, 2006

Gone shootin'?

Shootings part II: yesterday I had reported in my blog that there is no doubt the odd Italian (and American) who has probably now said that Canada is becoming more and more like the States after the shooting in Montréal (even though I suspect that the one main difference with the US is after this shooting the Canadians will clamp down even harder on weapons). Well, the latest comes from Naples, just yesterday. A 43 year-old engineer from Québec who’s based in Algeria was walking around the city centre with his missus after a nice day spent in Capri when he (thought) heard firecrackers going off. He noticed a burning sensation in his leg, and then fell to the ground. What he thought was a firecracker was in reality a stray bullet that had landed in his leg: he had been yet another victim (he survived though) of stray fire between Camorra gang members. On more than one occasion innocent bystanders have been killed, including children. The last major incident involving Canadians occurred just a few months ago with a Canadian diplomat stationed in Vienna: he was robbed at the Naples train station, murdered and dumped in a sewer. The honorary consul in Naples now wants to put online a warning to Canadian tourists to be cautious when visiting Naples (a few weeks ago a poor American tourist fought off some muggers only to find the family members of the muggers come not to HIS rescue but to the muggers’ rescue!). Giorgio Bocca, one of Italy’s senior authors, recently came out with a book called, “Napoli siamo noi”. In one episode, he tells of a journalist who called the police because there was ruckus going on in her street and she couldn’t sleep. The cops never came. So she called again. They finally came. Well, as a punishment, the day after, local Camorra members literally “devastated” all the cars parked on her street!

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Oh, Canada!

It’s funny, or should I say sad, that the Italian media usually talks about Canada in a negative sense: I’m referring to the American-style shooting in a college in Montréal on September 13, 2006. If it’s not that the Italian media will talk about the yearly seal hunt in eastern Canada! Very rarely though will we read up on the virtues of Canada.